


The Good Doctor

by festlich



Category: Bloodborne (Video Game)
Genre: Buck is pining, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-03
Updated: 2017-04-03
Packaged: 2018-10-14 07:48:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10532061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/festlich/pseuds/festlich
Summary: The night was still and cold but not silent. Never silent, Buck thought as a howl echoed distantly from somewhere behind him.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is for annaxiin and their amazing Hunter oc, who Buck finds helplessly charming.

The night was still and cold but not silent. Never silent, Buck thought as a howl echoed distantly from somewhere behind him.

Buck looked down at the black blood oozing from the fissure his serrated blade had dug into the head of an afflicted Huntsman, and he listened.

Rolling down like a fog from the empty street above a scream rung out but nothing lumbered down the debris choked road to attack. 

Whatever had made the noise wasn't coming his way.

He grunted and pried his weapon loose, pushing the body away with his boot. He held it loosely at his side in anticipation of a shadow detaching itself from an alley way, and examined his forearm and the tear in his dirty linen shirt sleeve.

Beneath it was a shallow gash left by the huntsman's ragged claws and he turned his arm this way and that, blood trickling out and seeping into the equally dirty wrappings around his palm.

This new pain reminded him on an older one and as if on cue, his head itched and burned.

Old Yharnam had been a new world of horror, from the crazed hunter on the roof top with his spitting rain of bullets; to the black shadow at the tower's base that had driven his blade into Buck's guts so many times the mere memory of him made Buck go cold.

And then there was the Church- always the Church- at the end of the winding hill.

The animal inside with the skin on it's back flayed open like a sick parody of wings had screamed at him like the damned.

And It must have been damned for it to be so brutally mangled and still walk the earth.

Buck had taken one look at it, gore and viscera hanging off of it's exposed bones as it lunged towards him, and ran.

It had nearly ripped his head off his shoulders, it's monstrous arm extended as it's claws dug bloody lines across the back of his scalp before he burst through the heavy wooden doors into the Night. 

Anything was better than the close fetid, smoke filled air of the chapel. 

The beast had paced just inside the vestibule, shrieking and slavering until he had hastily choked down a blood vial and fled back whence he'd come.

The marks left from the blood starved creature were thumping with pain and a fire that he feared might be infection.

Perhaps it was time for a bit of respite from this eternal, accursed Night.

  
\---

  
The journey back towards the Cathedral ward was blessedly quiet, the corpses of previously felled enemies lingered like macabre rabbit hills, breaking the monotony of the rain slick cobbles with mud covered Church whites, the glints of fallen weapons and the sizzling embers of torches.

His footsteps echoed down the streets and he heard movements behind some of the tightly shut doors.

He wondered if there were any left alive who weren't changed. 

A few rabid dogs snapped and barked at him as they paced beside their fallen masters but they left him alone and he, them.

The fog was thicker the closer to the Cathedral proper he got and Buck eyed the Giant lingering at the top of the hill warily as picked his way through the Church's small cemetery. The Behemoth remained at it's post, shifting and rattling and utterly ignorant of the rain pelting onto the brim of it's hat.

The dead grass was slick under his boots and he was careful not to trip on the moss covered marble steps as he ascended into the cool antechamber of the Chapel.

Immediately the potent incense hit him like a tangible thing and he coughed discreetly into his mask, signing himself as he passed the threshold into the antechamber. 

His boot heels and heavy weapons sounded harsh in the quiet of the sanctuary and the Old Woman glared at him from beneath her bonnet then continued on muttering to herself, rocking in her chair. 

Buck couldn't see the snide man but he knew he was there, could feel his eyes burrowing into the back of his skull.

Arianna leaned towards him as he stepped up onto the dias, smiling prettily and saying his name in a sweet whisper as he stopped and stood near her chair.

He liked Arianna, she smelled like flowers and sometimes touched his hand, said his name. It's short, harsh syllables sounded like something sacred when she spoke them.

He let her hold his hand only for the briefest of moments before gently pulling away "It's dirty" he croaked out while eyeing her own, pale and slender with deep red nails.

She laughed, like he'd said something funny.

The Dweller reached out brittle fingers to him as he strode towards the Lantern, brushing against his wet cape in greeting.

The creature didn't mind that Buck never responded verbally to his hello's and that suited Buck just fine.

As he reached out to clasp the Dweller's hand briefly in return, it's skin thin and rough, he saw out of the corner of his eye a displaced shadow.

"Ah yes! An old friend has returned, didn't you know?" the Dweller smiled, and it was still sweet even through his rotted teeth.

Buck squinted from under his cowl, waiting and watching as the stranger pushed his shoulder off the wall and strode into the light.

He wore the same uniform as the Crow, Buck noted, the tiny silver bell resting against his sternum chimed when the man reached out a hand "I believe we have been very adept at missing one another. I discovered this chapel not long before you did, according to our friend here" the Stranger nodded his chin towards the pile of bones and rags on the ground.

Buck regarded the extended hand warily, but in the end decided to take it because the leather gloves the man wore were scarred and weathered much like his own.

The Strangers' grip was firm but not painfully so and Buck held it even after the first curt pump.

He studied the man's face, weary and grizzled but comely in it's own way. His eyes were good, Buck thought, forward and unafraid to hold another's.

Buck, still clasping the Strangers' hand in his own, took a brazen step into the man's space.

He tilted his head, staring up from under his hood at the pattern of scars on the Stranger's forehead, the thick dark hair on his head, the fine wrinkles at the corners of his eyes.

He had the makings of a beard growing on his face and Buck thought that was quite different from his own smooth cheeks. He rubbed the pad of his thumb up the line of the man's jaw and then quickly withdrew his hand.

He could feel the Stranger tense, these were dark days and trust was a commodity not easily gifted or won. Buck started to back away but before he could, the man's hand was up and had flicked Buck's hood off his head.

Buck's eyes widened; he hadn't even registered the man's movements, hadn't felt the intent until it had happened and it was too late. His pressed his hands hastily to the back of his skull, the slightly raw wounds creating a three score of symmetrical lines on his scalp stung at the sudden pressure.

He winced and tried to step back and away but the Strangers' hand gripped his wrist, the movement broad and noticeable now. "Apologies, I didn't realize you were injured" the man craned his neck in an attempt to see behind Buck's caged fingers.

Buck shook his head and then felt tears prick at the corners of his eyes when the movement pulled at his freshly scabbed skin.

He mercilessly blinked them away, eyes catching on Arianna as she made as if to get out of her chair and approach.

Buck held out a hand to her, the other still pressed tightly to his scalp. He could feel blood welling out of the wound, hot and uncomfortable.

She sat back down but her red lips were pinched thin.

The Stranger spoke into the awkward, heavy silence that Buck filled with quick pained breaths "I was a medic," his voice was pitched soft as he were speaking to a child or a wounded animal "I could have a look if you'd like. Or not, if you'd rather."

The Stranger had a tiny grin curled the corner of his mouth and Buck squinted at him but gingerly peeled his now wet hand from the back of his head. 

The salt of his sweat stung in the reopened slashes. 

He looked down at his blood soaked hand wrappings and grimaced but cautiously followed when the Stranger directed him towards the shallow dias steps by his arm.

His shoulders were bunched up near his ears as he heard the man settle down behind him, then the rustle of fabric as he produced a small pouch from the folds of his crow feather cloak.

Buck heard the stranger murmur something to Arianna as she leaned over the arm of her chair to watch them, and then she stood and left, returning a moment later with a dented metal bucket filled with cold water.

Her velvet skirts brushed Buck's cheek as she placed it beside him and then she sat back in her chair, a silent witness.

He hissed at the first dab of the wet cloth to his cuts, the Stranger murmured an apology but didn't stop his careful ministrations.

The man didn't speak, but his touch was clearly that of a professional's: clinical and precise.

Buck turned his head when prompted, pressed his dirty nails into his thigh when a new spark of pain erupted from the now pulsating wounds and he did his best not to weep.

He succeeded, mostly.

When the Stranger spoke again, it shocked Buck out of his pained lethargy, "I could stitch these but i'd have to reopen the scabs. Or I could leave them, though the scars would be much more prominent. It's up to you" He had a rumbling, deep voice.

Buck thought that it was nice like his eyes and a pleasant thing to hear.

Sweat beaded on Buck's forehead and he swayed backwards, his back pressing lightly into the Strangers' chest.

The man's hands braced Buck's biceps, as if he feared Buck would slither down into his lap in a faint. He looked up at the Strangers' chin, mouth compressed beneath his mask and he nodded tightly and levered himself back up.

"I'll be as quick as I can" the Stranger said and Buck thought once again how deep it sounded, how kind.

'A doctor's voice' Buck thought as he heard the preparations taking place behind him, Arianna now crouched down beside the stranger, aiding him in whatever task he had quietly asked of her.

He closed his eyes in the anticipation of pain and waited.

\-----

It felt like hours had passed, but really it had only been perhaps about thirty minutes and The Doctor, as Buck thought of him now, was still behind him applying a sweet smelling salve to the newly stitched wounds.

It burned at first and he hissed and balled his fists but then the pain faded into a cool numbness that made Buck's toes curl, the relief was heady and buoyant.

The Doctor applied the last of the medicine and then grunted in satisfaction "That's that, then."

Buck's hand wandered up towards the back of his skull but stopped when strong, gloved fingers encircled his own just as his finger tips brushed against his damp hair.

"None of that now, you'll undo all my good work," the words were threaded with humor and punctuated by a chuckle. Buck looked over his shoulder and his nose almost brushed the other man's they were so close.

He stared intently into The Doctor's dark eyes, studying the thin red veins at the corners of them, their fatigued droop, the scars above them.

The Doctor stared back, though Buck couldn't tell if he was being studied in return because the man's eyes never seemed to move.

The silence stretched as they regarded one another, close enough that the small space between the Doctor's chest and Buck's back began to warm pleasantly.

"...Thank you" Buck said, voice coarse but firm.

The Doctor grinned now, his teeth were straight and clean and his smile almost reached his eyes "It's what I do."

 

\--------------

Check out annaxiin 's Hunter & other amazing work on their [Tumblr](http://annaxiin.tumblr.com/) 

My [Tumblr](http://bloodwrit.tumblr.com)


End file.
